Recent research carried out by the Keep Britain Tidy group has found that more than 700,000 bags of rubbish is removed from England’s roads every year, with Defra estimating that a staggering £667 million of tax payers money is spent on clearing litter from our streets. 23% of people have admitted they are likely to throw litter from their vehicles.
Together we can stop vehicle litter
The Keep Britain Tidy group has launched a national Vehicle Litter Campaign with the aim of reducing the amount of litter thrown from vehicles and to support this our team at Wigan Council, Environmental Education, will be delivering the campaign across Wigan Borough.
We believe that through providing education about the problems associated with car litter, we can encourage people to change their behaviour for the better and dispose of their litter responsibly. However, enforcement will also be increased which will see 180 newly-trained officers issuing fines to anyone caught throwing their litter.
We have been out campaigning in Leigh and Wigan.
During our roadshows, members of the public were offered free reusable bags and asked to answer a questionnaire about vehicle litter and how they felt about the problem. They were also invited to sign a pledge, agreeing to dispose of their vehicle litter (and all litter) responsibly. By signing the pledge they were also entered into a free prize draw, to have the chance of winning a car litter bin filled with goodies. Ronald McDonald himself even came along to the Wigan event to sign a pledge!
Members of the public also took advantage of the music and free face painting on offer, as well as admiring the ‘General Lee’ car made famous in the ‘Dukes of Hazard’ programmes and film.
- Wish FM have been supporting the campaign by providing on-air advertising as well as providing promotional staff at the launch events.
- Keep Britain Tidy has supplied major advertising on billboards and bus rears (see artwork below – Steve, if you could add the artwork somewhere on the page that would be great!)
- Signs will be installed at various hot spot sites, at key road junctions and on council vehicles to emphasise the campaign message
- 180 officers will be carrying out enforcement issuing fines to anyone caught throwing litter
The Environmental Education team will be looking to carry out surveys at the end of the campaign to see if people have noticed a difference. Look out for surveys taking place in your area.
